Women’s Final Four in Phoenix marks growth of women’s sports

PHOENIX – As Cheryl Miller, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, made the rounds in downtown Phoenix on Thursday, going from Final Four panels to fan festivals to countless conversations with people who stopped her for pictures or autographs, she paused for a long second to take it in.

“This is a-maz-ing,” said Miller, stretching her arms to the sky the way she once did during her legendary career when she led USC to two NCAA titles in 1983 and ‘84. 

Back then, the women’s Final Four was in its infancy. Miller isn’t alone in marveling at the evolution and growth of women’s sports in the ensuing years.

The 2026 Women’s Final Four in Phoenix is just another testament to that growth and how it extends into different parts of the economy and community.

“The game is growing. This is a mega elite event – that’s not just here, nationally, but worldwide, on behalf of women’s basketball and the ecosystem of the game for sure,” said Amy Reis, the director of NCAA women’s basketball.

While the sport is blossoming at a record pace, so are its impacts. As women’s basketball draws more viewers at the professional and collegiate levels, it also impacts local communities. Women collegiate athletes garner name, image and likeness deals, while professional players earn brand collaborations – and now, due to a new tentative WNBA collective bargaining agreement, higher pay. Women athletes interact with their communities and bring visibility and representation to their sport, becoming role models to younger generations.

Last year, the Women’s Final Four in Tampa brought in an estimated $30 million to the region, and the year before in Cleveland, $32.9 million in direct spending in the area. While the economic impacts throughout the Valley will remain unknown for some time, high ticket prices represent the sport’s demand. 

Ticket prices skyrocketed once the Final Four teams were decided. This weekend’s games at the Mortgage Matchup Center in downtown Phoenix feature all No. 1 seeds – UConn takes on South Carolina in Friday’s opening game, followed by UCLA against Texas, with the winners meeting Sunday afternoon in the title game. Available tickets for the semifinals range from $223 to upwards of $7,000.

The cost of admission isn’t the only economic impact indicator – brand partnerships with the NCAA, the Women’s Final Four and the athletes themselves are one of the true signs of the movement in women’s sports, according to Scripps Sports president Brian Lawlor.

“It used to be momentum; it clearly is now a movement,” he said. “And it’s not slowing down. The number of brands that are leaning into it and sponsoring it, the number of young ladies that have their own shoe now, their own apparel, their own podcasts, like all of this interest is cascading over the fact that people can finally see their games.”

The athlete-brand partnership is in full effect in Phoenix, with advertisers and sponsors turning the downtown area into indoor and outdoor billboards celebrating the event.

“In the NCAA championship, I think when you come here to Phoenix, and you see it, you’re going to see how the sponsors have leaned into the championship, to women’s sports,” Reis said. “I think we still got a long ways to go, but we’re never more proud of the growth that’s happened exceptionally fast, but it’s well deserved.”

Lawlor attributes the growth to visibility. But the visibility isn’t just about what’s on screen. For Desert Financial, an Arizona credit union, it means showcasing the high-level talent of Arizona universities’ women athletes with an all-women NIL cohort. 

“We decided to do an all-female cohort this year because we want to support this, this change, you know, you can feel that sort of tide changing, and we really wanted to lean in and support that,” said Amy Steele, the director of strategic partnership with Desert Financial. 

The credit union is partnered with Faith Frame and Marley Washenitz, who play for the ASU volleyball and basketball teams, respectively, along with Audrey Taylor, a guard for Northern Arizona University’s women’s basketball team. 

Desert Financial works with its athletes to impact the community, calling them changemakers. Leading up to the Women’s Final Four, the ASU women’s basketball team hosted a clinic for 100 girls from various Boys and Girls clubs around the Valley in collaboration with the credit union.

“If you think about when you were a kid, you will remember something like that as you grow,” Steele said. “As you grow up, you’ll remember that you got to go play basketball with the ASU women’s basketball team. So it’s huge. We see the impact in everything.” 

The impact of women in sports can be seen in the office, too. Roughly 71% of female leaders at the manager or C-Suite level have some sports experience, according to a Women’s Sports Foundation survey. 

“It does wonderful things for being able to work on a team, focus, leadership, working through adversity, etc.,” said Jessica Pacheco, a chair elect on the Arizona Board of Regents, which is the governing body for the three public Arizona universities. “And those are all incredible skills that we were able to give to our student athletes, right, regardless of what level of sport they’re playing, and that they keep for the duration of their lifetime.”

Pacheco hopes that as women’s sports continue to expand, so will the number of women in leadership positions, so that representation can be seen outside the game and in the office, because representation in all facets of life is important to inspiring others, she said.

The Women’s Final Four offers fans an opportunity to view the best of the best of women’s college basketball. While many of those competitors may go on to play in the WNBA, such as Azzi Fudd, a UConn guard who is widely slated as the No. 1 WNBA draft prospect this year, there is still a place for athletes who aren’t looking to continue their sports journey as they carry the skills they learned into the professional world. 

All the while, these female athletes are showcasing their talent for a generation aiming to be just like them one day.

“I think the visibility now is the key, and there’s so much interest,”  Lawlor said. “And all these little girls who started watching a couple of years ago are now playing and so now they’re paying more attention to the teams and the players that they want to emulate and ultimately represent.”

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